


Livermorium

by Annariel



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Sapphire and Steel
Genre: Gen, mild crack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-03
Updated: 2014-01-03
Packaged: 2018-01-07 07:19:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1117094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annariel/pseuds/Annariel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The problem with unstable transuranics is they do tend to get carried away with the anthropomorphic aspects.  This becomes a particular problem if they have only recently been discovered on Earth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Livermorium

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lost_spook](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lost_spook/gifts).



> Thanks to fredbassett for beta reading.

"I do wish you'd stay focused," Silver complained.

Copper took a graceful step away from the door. She'd been peering through the glass panel at the classroom beyond. She shrugged elegantly and carried on up the corridor towards him. Her hips swayed in the brown leather trousers she was wearing and sunlight glinted in her long auburn hair each time she passed a window. She thrust her hands in the pockets of her green jacket and smiled languidly at him.

"I don't see how we are going to find Livermorium, if we don't look," she said.

"Well he or she isn't going to be in one of these classrooms. They are all for older children. I imagine it'll be obvious enough when we find it."

"Can I help you?" asked a voice.

Silver spun around. His mind raced, trying to think of a plausible explanation why he and Copper would be wandering around a school. He had a vague inkling that humans got upset about such things. A young woman stood looking at him. She was petite with shoulder length brown hair and was wearing a soft cashmere sweater and a short green skirt. She was clutching a pile of papers so Silver assumed she must be a teacher of some kind.

"We're prospective parents," Silver began with a smile, eyeing Copper nervously.

"We're looking for a baby," Copper broke in.

The teacher turned towards her, giving Silver the opportunity to make frantic shut up signs behind her back. Copper, as usual, ignored him.

"Really? Any particular kind of baby?" asked the teacher.

"The kind that can warp the fabric of space time," replied Copper.

Silver groaned.

"Right! That kind," said the teacher sounding remarkably calm about the statement, all things considered. "You'll be wanting the nursery department next door. I'll take you around there."

 _That is the last time I agree to let you come out into the field,_ Silver thought at Copper.

 _It worked, didn't it?_ was her reply.

"I'm Clara Oswald by the way." The teacher thrust out her hand. "While I take you over can you explain to me why this baby can warp the fabric of space time?"

"Well, it's a long story."

"I expect you can shorten it, if you try." The young woman seemed remarkably business-like.

"It is a transuranic," Copper cut in. "They are unstable and tend to take on more anthropomorphic features than is advisable."

"It really shouldn't have been here at all," Silver said apologetically.

"Transuranic, right. Like a recently discovered element?"

"Livermorium, named in 2012," Silver supplied.

"Let me guess. That means this baby is eighteen months old?"

"Hard to say. I believe you people first observed it thirteen years ago, but the naming was only last year."

"Right, so start with the nursery and work our way upwards." The woman flashed them both a smile as she pushed open the door to the building and began to march across the playground."

At that moment there was a small time-quake. Both Copper and Silver staggered under the aftershock. Clara Oswald's stride faltered for a moment then she turned and frowned at them both, arms crossed.

"Did something just happen then?" she asked.

"A small time quake, nothing to worry about," Silver said.

"Doesn't sound like nothing to worry about. Do you know where the epicentre was?"

Silver nodded. "Just ahead of us."

The second time quake hit as they reached the door of the next building. Both Copper and Silver had to brace themselves as if against a high wind. Clara staggered backwards slightly.

"Felt that," she commented and then ploughed on.

"Excuse me, who are you exactly?" Silver asked.

She grinned enigmatically at him. "Me? I'm the Impossible Girl."

"That doesn't actually help much."

"It's a long story and not as urgent as yours was."

She pulled open a second door off the hallway to reveal a room full of small children all frozen into silence. A baby sat in the centre of the floor chuckling. Two women, also frozen in time, hovered near the sides of the room.

"Definitely not good," commented Clara, before the next quake came and she froze in turn.

"She seems to be human," Copper muttered curiously, running fingers through Clara's hair.

"Focus," muttered Silver staggering into the room against the force of the time winds emanating from the chuckling baby in the middle of the floor. Each step was harder than the last, then he felt Copper's hand fall gently on his back, lending her strength to his, carving a conduit through the static to the child. 

Silver bent down and picked the baby up in his arms. It screamed.

"Here, I think you had better take this," he said thrusting it towards Copper.

An expression of distaste crossed her features. "What would I want it for?"

Silver gave up, tucked a blanket around the child and then phased out of existence. He felt, more than heard, Copper laugh, a gentle deep sound full of humour and indulgence that echoed through him as they left. 

Maybe she wasn't so difficult to have around after all.


End file.
